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Rising from a 2-day executive session on anti-corruption modules held from 26-27 April, 2023 in Abuja, some Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) bear the minds on experience gained.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive, The Nigerian Security Minting and Printing, Ahmed A. Halilu, said the take home from the interactive sessions included the importance of ACTU in organizations and the need to support and strengthen them towards assisting ICPC achieve their mandate, the relevance of systems study being conducted by ICPC and the need to continuously support the administration of ethics and integrity compliance score card and the position of the laws on various aspects of the fight against corruption.
He also pointed out the importance of strengthening internal control system and how to handle issues of gifts and hospitality among other pressures on CEOs when appointed mostly from community, family, friends, associates and the danger of being surrounded by “yes sir” people and existence of staff with the mentality of “this is a tradition”, “this is how we do it” and “don’t worry one will find a way around it” as they are inclined towards misleading CEOs to commit corrupt practices.
The Managing Director also noted that the fight against corruption is the responsibility of all with effective collaboration and cooperation between and amongst all the anti-corruption agencies.
The Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, Nasarawa State, Dr. Yahaya Baba Adamu, explained that it is not just about FMC, but an opportunity for all to share ideas.
“We learnt from ICPC and they also probably get to hear from us, on some of the practical experience we are also going through. So, I think, it is a fruitful time and I believe going back some of the things we have leant here will help to strengthen our operations back home.”
On the way forward, Dr. Adamu suggested that this kind of training be done for all sets of new chief executives that are appointed to offices, so that the initial mistake that some of them made would be avoided by them.
He noted that they will be starting with the knowledge that some of them never had and this will minimize the mistakes they would have done.
Rosemary Omoyeme Esekhagbe, Director, Planning and Policy Analysis, National Productivity Centre who represented her Director-General said the session was quite impactful because there is a lot of expose that being chief executive or holding position of leadership these three acts one must not do away with.
She said they are the ICPC Act, Code of Conduct Act and the Poca Act.“When you are armed with this, you are good to go. And then you must put internal measures in the organization. And you must stay aloof the body language is that ‘I am not going to give in’”, she said.
Rosemary said “as I got back I was already sharing with the Director of Finance. So, it is to cascade it. We said communicate. You know one of the presenters here said, it is all about communication. Communicate, communicate, using the awareness. Once you are able to cascade this from awareness to self-control taking into consideration internal control measures where you are not ready to compromise, then everybody will fall in line.”
For the Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. DanAzumi M. Ibrahim, it is all in an effort to make Nigeria better and about doing the right thing.
According to him, if there are areas that the best is not done, they have gotten insights from the lectures and as responsible chief executives, they own the interactive session a duty not only to implement these insights, but to also encourage other chief executives to buy. “What is important is that we have collective responsibility. Everybody has a role to play to move this country forward,” Dr. Ibrahim explained.
